Coimbatore-based Future Gaming and Hotel Services, owned by Santiago Martin, is in the limelight as the highest buyer of electoral bonds worth ₹1,368 crore.  

Who is Martin?  

In Tamil Nadu, the name ‘Martin’ has become inextricably entwined with the word ‘lottery’, like ‘Sachin’ and batting. 

Beginning with his first steps in the lottery industry at just 13 years of age, he managed to develop and secure a vast marketing network of buyers and sellers of lotteries all over India. Sticking to the lottery field for more than three decades has yielded him a good reputation as well as income, making him a well-awarded ‘highest income taxpayer’. 

Martin’s network was largely in the south. In due course, multiple branches of the Martin empire came into being — Martin Karnataka Lottery, Martin Sikkim Lottery, West Bengal, Punjab, and Maharashtra. 

Having attained a position of leadership within the trade through years of innovation and marketing in business operations, with an average annual growth of approximately 109 per cent, he is now regarded as the “Lottery King” of India. 

With a professional strength of more than 1,000 committed staff working in the organisation and more than 260 stockists in all lottery-playing states, his enterprise has transformed into more of a community that has enabled the benefit of millions dependent on the industry for a livelihood, both directly and indirectly.  

In addition to his passion for technology-driven enterprises and the quest for fresh investments, his qualities as an entrepreneur have greatly enabled him to diversify into multiple business ventures. 

Apart from Martin Lottery Tickets, the group headed by Martin has several interests that constitute the Martin Group of Companies in an enviable array of enterprises in India and abroad, including Martin Myanmar and Martin Yangon. According to the company’s website, their services include real estate, construction, textiles and yarn. 

The website says Martin’s desire to create employment opportunities is an inner motivation for him to develop the lottery business to this extent.  

In May 2023, the Enforcement Directorate carried out search operations on May 11 and 12 at the residential premises of Santiago Martin and others of Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt Ltd in Chennai and at the business premises in Coimbatore, under the provisions of the PMLA, 2002. 

During the searches, movable/immovable properties worth around ₹457 crore, including FDs, mutual funds, and immovable property documents, were seized/frozen. 

Martin is assumed to be politically close to the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a Dalit grouping which is part of the DMK-led alliance, because his son-in-law, Adhav Arjuna, a former national basketball player and the Managing Director of the NBFC, Arise Investments and Capital Pvt Ltd, was inducted into the party in February.  

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